Review: Jennifer’s Body

Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) is a cheerleader and all round it-girl who can get any boy she wants. Some might say she’s a man-eater, and when a twisted rock group offers her up to Satan in exchange for fame and glory, that’s exactly what she becomes.

It’s important that you don’t take this film too seriously as a “horror”. The real story of this film is the underlying theme of friendship. It shows how teenage girls go from being BFF’s one minute, to sworn enemies the next. It could have made for an entertaining and thoughtful film, had all the gore not got in the way.

This film is Diablo Cody’s follow up to Juno, meaning that a lot of people had high expectations for it. Films that are surrounded by hype are almost always disappointing when you finally get to see them, and this is no exception. There is no doubt in my mind that Jennifer’s Body is not an Oscar worthy film, which is probably why it’s got so much bad press. Let’s face it; Juno is going to be hard for Cody to top.

The combination of thrilling and funny is a difficult one to get right. At times, I think this movie succeeds, but at others it falls flat on its face. Cody’s script is full of pop culture references and quirky word choices, which worked well in Juno, but seems out of place in this movie.

Megan Fox seemed determined to use this film to prove that she can actually act, and I think she managed it. Fox creates a character that you love to hate and isn’t just used as eye-candy; in fact, there are plenty of scenes where she manages to look less than attractive, which is definitely an achievement for the make up team. The performance that surprised me the most was that of Amanda Seyfried. I must admit, I’d never really paid that much attention to her performance in Mean Girls as dumb blonde Karen Smith and I paid even less attention to her role in Mamma Mia, probably because I was too busy wanting to shoot myself in the head through most of it. However, her portrayal as Jennifer’s best friend Needy in this film was superb. She narrates the story well and Seyfried does an excellent job of showing how her character slowly starts to fray around the edges as the murders continue.

Of course I have to mention the lesbian scene. Surely, every review of this film does? I feel that it was put in purely to interest boys in this film, as it really is quite random and uncalled for. That’s not to say it isn’t hot; it just probably could have been incorporated a little better so as not to be quite so out of the blue.

One thing that I loved about this film is the soundtrack. I bought it before I actually saw the film purely because it features many of my favourite bands including Cobra Starship and Panic! At The Disco. True, it’s unusual music for the genre, but it works with the style of this film.

It’s not the best film I’ve seen all year, but it’s certainly not the worst by a long shot. Jennifer’s Body has taken a lot of harsh criticism from the media circus that seems to follow Megan Fox wherever she goes but if you go into it with an open mind, you will no doubt find it entertaining.